Day 4 at GDF- April 5th

It was looking like rain for us this morning, so original plan had been to head to the Mall and then to the pet store with the dogs. :) However by the time we loaded up and got going out from the Foundation, the sun was trying to peek through and we hadn’t gotten any rain. So we decided to head to San Remo, a nice neighborhood with pretty houses and pretty flat sidewalks. The block we were on was essentially a large rectangle with rounded corners and then a shoot off for a wheelchair ramp on the corners. Which is one of the more difficult corners for a blind person to navigate, as there’s not the definite sharp corner to determine which direction they are headed.
As Favor and I got out of the van, we had the pleasant surprise of seeing Miss S again, Favor’s sister, working with her trainer across the street and going past in harness.

Miss S in harness standing at the side of her trainer at the corner, waiting to move forward at his command.   Her ears are perked up and she's looking at the camera interested in the dogs over here.

Favor did an awesome job taking me around this long and large block and we are really doing well together so far. She's still a little fast, but she's slowing down as I tell her steady. That is until she realizes we are within scent distance of the van and then she starts pulling to get back to the van and Greg. LOL!

Then in the afternoon we went to Petco to get her an XL Kong and a slicker brush to use on her. We walked through the store and she was a little distracted but I was impressed with her since as soon as I told her No! she was back on the job immediately and focused on me again and working.

From there we went to the mall and it was great to see her work in the real world. :) We went into Barnes & Nobles first and did the escalator and WOW, she's so graceful about going on and off!.   We then walked to the center of the mall and Greg put a walkie talkie on me.  Then he turned me loose after showing me the layout of the mall. Funny thing is- not 50 feet after he let me go- a mall cop came flying up on his motor scooter and stopped me saying "Ma'am, you can't have dogs in the Mall." I just kind of looked at him and Simply said- It's a service dog. He then looked down at me as he was in front of me at this point and said Well OK, sorry for questioning you. But he continued to follow me and then Greg with my class mate too headed to the restroom. We were like really? As much as we are here, you don't get it?
It was a little different reaction from the public though, as with Rei, people would simply smile and keep going. Quite a few people recoiled from Favor today, fearing the Shepherd that she looks like. Overall she did really,really well though. I'm impressed with her attentiveness too. Nothing seems to get pass her and she has been impeccable in keeping me clear of obstacles. She did run me into a bush once, but hasn't done it since re-working it.

We came back and had dinner with the whole group and then went downstairs to talk about ADA and access issues.   After the lecture, Favor and I came upstairs and she played and played with her kong about the room, happy as a lark.   She wore herself out and I went to bed a tired lady!   So as the saying goes- an exercised dog is a good dog! :)   This picture holds true to that!

Favor asleep on her bed with her paws up under her and her kong between all 4 paws and her front paw on top of the kong as if to say- I'm keeping this safe, it's my favorite toy!